Annual visitation numbers of Canadian and US National “Places” I've visited in the last few years (sources: US National Park Service Visitation Reports and Wikipedia):
- Grand Canyon National Park (US): 4 401 522 (2005) – 4 927 km2
- Banff National Park (Canada): 3 927 557 (2004/2005) – 6 641 km2
- Olympic National Park (US): 3 142 774 (2005) – 3 734 km2
- Point Reyes National Seashore (US): 1 988 585 (2005) – 288 km2
- Jasper National Park (Canada): 1 908 000 (2004) – 10 878 km2
- Joshua Tree National Park (US): 1 375 111 (2005) – 3 196 km2
- Death Valley National Park (US): 800 113 (2005) – 13 628 km2
- Saguaro National Park (US): 727 208 (2005) – 370 km2
- Petrified Forest National Park (US): 598 378 (2005) – 885 km2
- Redwood National Park (US): 394 144 (2005) – 455 km2
- Chiricahua National Monument (US): 60 224 (2005) – 49 km2
- Grasslands National Park (Canada): ~ 6000 annually – 907 km2
More people visit Grand Canyon National Park in under 12 hours than Grasslands National Park (previously on BPotD) in a year.
Thank goodness.
Agree totally with Ms. Moro. Grasslands is a treasure as these photos show.
I added the area information so that one could calculate a measure of “solitude” – with Grasslands clearly being the winner, by a factor of roughly 10 over Death Valley NP (though at certain times of the year, I can imagine DVNP to be nearly empty).
I know it's more complicated than at first glance, but I also found visitorship interesting when comparing parks with outstanding landform features vs. botanical features. Other factors complicate this, of course (proximity to a major city, for example).
Lastly, I should point out we saw 2 of Canada's Endangered species (swift fox and burrowing owl) and one species of Special Concern (black-tailed prairie dog) in the span of a day at Grasslands.
Extraordinary ...
GNP took my breath away last spring. Visiting the area for a few days during a cross country trip in May it was a memorable highlight. The landscape was parched after a 4 year drought, wildlife was fantastic. To top things of we "camped" in a teepee at "The Crossing" on the western border of the park. We hiked off road in a few spots and the landscape is breath-taking.